succeeding in med school?

Question

is it based on rote learning study technique "memorizing" or"thinking"?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rote_learning

my question should be like this: what study technique do most students in med school prefer, rote learning or thinking?

Answer 1

I think that most serious med students prefer thinking, because it's more applicable to real-life practice to understand something, rather than to just know a list. That being said, much of the basic science years of med school is consumed with memorizing, because there's nothing to understand in some subjects, such as pathology.

For example, they'll give you 50 different kidney pathologies, which are all VERY similar, and only really differ in what 7 characteristics (out of 15 common characteristics that could apply to any of them) are applied to each of the 50 pathologies. Like pathology 1 has A, C, D, E, F, H, and P characteristics associated with it, while pathology 2 has A, B, D, F, G, L, and K associated with it, and so on. So, how are you going to keep all 50 straight? You memorize it. There's nothing to think about, nothing to understand -- only details to remember. So, in that case, it's only about memorization, because you're not really being tested regarding your understanding, just whether you can remember it all.

It gets better when you get to 3rd year though, because then it's not much book-learning, as you spend most of your time in the clinics, actually practicing some medicine.

Answer 2

Some of it...such as anatomy/pharmaceutical work etc. etc. is based on rote. When you are called upon to put things into PRACTICE.....then 'thinking' enters the equation. I would say for the first two years of med school it was about a 65/35 split.